Updated: December 5, 2020 5:07:18 am
Voting Count for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Elections, December 4, 2020 (Source: GHMC PRO)
Marking an astonishing performance in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections, the BJP emerged as the second-largest party on Friday, ousting the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) from half the seats it had held. While the BJP count increased from four in 2016 to 48, the TRS numbers dropped from 99 to 55.
With only one result in the 150-member GHMC still pending after the recount order, the TRS will finish well below the at least 65 seat mark for the mayoral seat.
While AIMIM retained its 44-seat tally, while it was contesting 51 seats instead of 60 last time, the blow of finishing behind BJP will hurt. The GHMC polls were a prestigious battle for AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on his own turf, and the BJP who carried out a high-pitched campaign by deploying their big guns had primarily targeted him. Among the 48 seats won by the BJP, six were in the Muslim-dominated Charminar division.
The congressional bill stood at two, the same as in 2016.
BJP leaders said the party’s performance “made it ambiguously clear that it is emerging as the alternative force” in Telangana, which they said was its agenda for these elections. The party sees Telangana as one of the states where it has the best chance after Karnataka. BJP Chairman JP Nadda and Interior Minister and Chief Leader Amit Shah said the results also showed “unequivocal support for Prime Minister Modi’s model of development and governance.”
Figures in parentheses indicate changes from 2016
The BJP won in areas dominated by software engineers, intrastate migrants and people who moved from the congested old city of Hyderabad to newer areas of the city on the outskirts. The party also appears to have made substantial progress among socially and economically backward communities. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had demonstrated its presence in the state, winning four of the 17 seats with almost 20% of the vote.
BJP Telangana chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar said: “The BJP’s victory in the Dubbaka by-elections on November 10 was the defeat of T Harish Rao, the nephew of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. GHMC polls have given a major defeat to KT Rama Rao, the CM’s son (he led the TRS campaign).
Kumar added that the party was now ready to seize power in Telangana, and that TRS had “failed to satisfy the aspirations of the people.” “KCR and TRS can’t take anything for granted right now,” he said.
BJP General Secretary Bhupender Yadav, who was sent to oversee the party’s election campaign in Hyderabad directly from its success in Bihar, said: “It is a moral victory over the politics of the dynasty and the politics of corruption.” He said that settling in Hyderabad, with its preeminent space in the digital industry, was crucial for the party as it showed “both its expansion and acceptance.”
Former BJP state chief K Laxman said the party would have won even more seats had it not been for TRS’s “understanding” with AIMIM.
With the BJP making its claims of a secret deal between TRS and AIMIM the mainstay of its election campaign, the TRS also faces the unenviable prospect of relying on Owai’s party to retain control of the GHMC. KCR’s son KT Rama Rao, also Minister of Municipal Administration, said: “We lost several seats by a margin of very few votes, 100 or even just 70.”
After another regrettable performance by Congress, its head of the PCC, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, resigned. Malkajgiri congressional deputy A Revanth Reddy is likely to be appointed the new head of state.
Results took time as ballots were used in the GHMC rather than EVM elections due to Covid-19 protocols.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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